Daughters Are Like Stars
by Juliedoo
Summary: Nine months later is what happens when you spend all your condom money at the pachinko parlor.


.

"She's got your dead fish eyes, Gin-chan!"

Gin ignores Kagura because his eyes are _fabulous_, thank you very much, and her rude commentary is obviously the offshoot of blatant jealousy. (Bitch wishes she was as pretty as him.) Besides, all his attention is hoarded by the tiny person cuddled in his arms.

It's hard to believe something so beautiful originated from his nutsack, but there you have it—his boys did good. Little artisans, really.

She looks like a chubbier, midget version of her mother with his coloring and kinky hair. The plump curve of her tiny lips, the thin shape of her slender nose, the dainty curve of her high cheekbones is all Tsukuyo. Snowy lashes, like high grass in a frost, fan down over her sleeping eyes—his dead fish eyes. She's both of them, but she isn't. And she's so small, you know? Not even the length of his forearm. Not even ten pounds. A grocery bag full of strawberry milk and _sukonbu _weighs more than his daughter.

His daughter, man. Damn.

If someone (probably that whiny nag Shinpachi) had told Gin nine months ago that blowing all his condom money at the _pachinko_ parlor would've resulted in this, he would've laughed hysterically and strolled right into the middle of a busy intersection to get mowed down by the first speeding vehicle he could leap in front of. Because he doesn't do kids, really. Kagura's a monster, not a girl, and she can shrug off bullets like a dirty coat and break a grown man in half with her pinky finger. Shinpachi does alright for an obligatory glasses character, and besides, he's mostly grown and he's got that she-hulk sister to look after him. He can't mess them up.

But his daughter...

Well, shit. He _knows _he's a lazy fuck-up with a wishy washy income, and he's got more enemies than he can count on all his fingers and toes. No prospects. Mold growing in his kitchen. But he would kill and die and bleed and suffer for this girl, and he's barely known her an hour. It's an odd thing, suddenly, when the center of your universe shifts and your whole life—every thought, every feeling, every waking fraction of a second—suddenly belongs to and revolves around someone else.

It's not so bad, he figures. Just different.

"Alright, alright." Hinowa smiles up from where she's cooing over her 'niece'. "Lets give the new parents some time alone with her, hmm?"

Seita wheels her out of the hospital room, with Shinpachi and Kagura filing behind, closing the door as they leave.

Tsukuyo is dazed and sleepy, propped up in the bed, hair frazzled and tired bags dragging down her eyes, but her smile is brighter and gentler than he's ever seen it. Gin sits next to her, softly and quietly, so as not to jostle the dozing baby. Tsukuyo lets her head fall on his shoulder, and they both just look at their child for an eternity of minutes. No words, no silence; just a moment, snatched out of the air and scrimped away in their memory, never to be forgotten.

"She needs a name," Tsukuyo breathes tenderly, letting her fingers ghost over the pale fuzz sprouting out of their daughter's scalp.

"I don't know about you, but I like Gintokiko. Ow! Don't pinch my nipple like that, dammit, I need it!"

"What about Koteru?" she asks, ignoring his theatrics with typical nonchalance. "We liked it, didn't we?"

Koteru. _Little shining one_. So bright, so warm. With the moon as her mother and a (sort of reformed) vengeful spirit for a father. The Moon of Yoshiwara, the Shiroyasha...they actually copulated, reproduced. With a pedigree like that, their kid'll probably be a star some day, a guiding light, distant and burning and beautiful.

"Better than nothing," Gin murmurs through his suddenly thick throat. Must be ragweed in the air or something. His eyes always water during allergy season.

.

.

"Oi!"

"Oh, it's you, China. I see you escaped from the zoo. Shouldn't you be running from the rabid animal wranglers?"

"Shut up, Sadist! Anyway, I want a baby of my own, and you're going to give me one."

"...What?"

* * *

AN: Yes, I went there. Because ohmygodhowcute would Gin be as a daddy? You saw that one episode! You know what I'm talking about! Appo! And this is the product of too many feels and too much cough medicine and sick leave and whatnot. Hope you liked reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. n_n

Music: ''Upward Over the Mountain'' by Iron & Wine. Such a pretty song. Makes me cry, actually.


End file.
